From the moment you pick up iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you know how to use it. That’s because iOS was designed to be easy to understand. The simple-yet-beautiful Home screen invites you to discover each of the built-in apps. So right away, you’re browsing your favorite websites, capturing a few candids, or texting your friends. And no matter what you’re doing or what app you’re using, everything feels easy, intuitive, and even fun.

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Because Apple makes both the hardware and the operating system for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, everything is designed to work together. So apps take full advantage of hardware features such as the dual-core processor, accelerated graphics, wireless antennas, and more. Multitasking is a perfect example. iOS learns when you like to use your apps and updates the content in them at power-efficient times, like when your device is already in use and connected to Wi-Fi. So the content in your favorite apps stays up to date without a major drain on your battery.

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iOS is the platform for well over a million mobile apps — and counting.1 And every app starts with the right DNA. So we’ve made iOS 8 the biggest release for developers since the introduction of the App Store. It offers new APIs to enable even more amazing features and bold new technologies for game development. And the App Store makes all of these apps easy to access, easy to search, and easy to buy using the same account you use for iTunes. Just browse the App Store on your iOS device and download them with a tap.

iCloud Drive lets you access all your files from any device. iCloud also stores your music, apps, mail, contacts, calendars, documents, and more and wirelessly pushes them to all of your devices.

With Family Sharing, all of your photos, videos, music and iTunes purchases can be shared easily with your family across multiple Apple devices. Find My iPhone helps you locate your lost iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. And iCloud Keychain securely remembers your user names, passwords, and credit card information so you don’t have to.2Learn more about iCloud

iOS updates are free. And they’re available to download wirelessly on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch the moment they’re released. Your device even alerts you when it’s time to get the latest version. So you won’t miss out on all the amazing features in new updates.

iOS includes a variety of accessibility features that help people with disabilities experience more of what iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch have to offer. The built-in VoiceOver screen reader allows those who are blind or have low vision to hear a description of the item they’re touching on the screen. Made for iPhone Hearing Aids are Bluetooth devices that allow you to experience clearer phone conversations and music, and you can manage them directly from your iOS device. With Guided Access, you can restrict an iOS device to one app, and even limit the amount of time spent in an app. Which can be helpful to people with autism or other attention and sensory challenges. And Switch Control gives individuals with limited physical or motor skills complete control of their device through switch access. iOS also offers many other beneficial accessibility features, such as dynamic screen magnification, playback of closed-captioned video, mono audio, simplified screen gestures, and more.
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iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch support keyboard and dictionary functions for multiple languages and dialects.

iOS lets you take your pick of over 35 system languages and easily switch between them. Because the keyboard is software based, you can select from over 55 different layouts with support for diacritic marks on characters and contextual character options for Japanese. VoiceOver reads screens in more than 35 languages, and Voice Control understands over 20 languages.

iOS 8 makes it easy for businesses to put iOS devices in the hands of employees, with features such as better protection of work and personal data. Management of app licenses. Seamless enrollment in Mobile Device Management. Wireless app conﬁguration. Enterprise single sign‑on support. And default data protection for third‑party apps.
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iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch are incredible learning tools thanks to iOS. With educational apps and games from the App Store, free courses and lectures from iTunes U, and interactive textbooks from the iBooks Store, students of all ages and all walks of life can learn the way they want, wherever they want.
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Refers to the total number worldwide. Not all content is available in all countries.

iCloud requires iOS 5 or later on iPhone 3GS or later, iPod touch (3rd generation or later), iPad, or iPad mini; a Mac computer with OS X Lion v10.7.5 or later; or a PC with Windows 7 or Windows 8 (Outlook 2007 or later or an up‑to‑date browser is required for accessing email, contacts, and calendars). Some features require iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. Some features require a Wi‑Fi connection. Some features are not available in all countries. Access to some services is limited to 10 devices.